


Short, Dark & Moody

by FelineBlue



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altea is a city on earth in this story, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Awkward Conversations, Barista AU, Barista Lance, Coffee Shops, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Keith is that one customer we all want to come in, M/M, One Shot, Texting, Unimpressed Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 20:35:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8028064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FelineBlue/pseuds/FelineBlue
Summary: “Do you think trying and crying rhyme because of me?”
Lance works as a barista at a coffee shop that also doubles as a drive thru. He works every Sunday morning with a great team but he's secretly only there to see short dark coffee with two espressos and a little bit of lactose free foam; or whatever his real name was.





	Short, Dark & Moody

Just as 8am rolled around, the team slammed back their shots of espressos before getting back to work. Working mornings at a drive thru coffee shop was probably a blessing in disguise. Although, a really fucked up blessing in disguise but it really was great when you had a good team working.

Especially for a Sunday morning shift.

It was always quiet before the storm hit.

And oh did it always hit right around 10.

Lance had picked up this barista job from Pidge who actually referred him to their store. Hunk was already working there as a shift manager and their buddy Shiro was just about to be transferred over; what more could a guy ask for?

Well, he didn't quite expect how busy the store actually would be. There was the standard cafe setup; pictures of fancy coffee from around the world decorated the 'artfully' coffee stained walls and a long table was set up off to the side for those customers who wanted to hold meetings or play board games. There was a set of couches pushed up against the bay windows beside the cash registers and pastry case that NONE of the staff sat on because well, if you asked Coran or even Nyma, they could tell you an abundance of beautiful stories involving lovely bodily functions.

Yes, Lance was traumatized by this. 

He was present for one of these happenings, unfortunately.

The drive thru portion of the store was where it through him off when he first started. Unlike other drive thru places, this cafe chose to face one of the busiest intersections in all of Altea WITHOUT setting up a sound board. It also didn't help that half the customers who came through drive thru either didn't know how to use the menu or even order off of it. Or they were just straight up soggy blueberries.

If you asked anybody who worked at this cafe, they could tell you some pretty great stories about some of these customers and how fucked up some of them actually were. Lance could still remember when a customer had almost brought poor Shay to tears. All she had done was tell the lady at the window that she couldn't collect her birthday reward because she hadn't even registered her card.

But Sundays were Lance's favourite days to work because it was like walking into a sea of good looking customers who sauntered into the cafe in and out through the whole day. Yes, Lance was friendly with all of them and yes he had no idea what any of their names were BUT his boss would be proud with the connections he made.

Even if he had ulterior motives.

One particular customer though caught his eye when he first started regularly working Sunday mornings. 

Pidge was actually the first to point him out to Lance a year ago while the store had been dead for a couple hours. They had been messing around on bar and were trying some of the secret menu drinks Hunk had been talking about that morning. Just as Lance was about to queue up his shots for the concoction, Pidge nudged him before greeting the man who stood in front of their cashier and animatedly starting asking for his order.

“Wow, hes right up your alley.” Nyma's sultry voice trickled into Lance's ear from the headset he wore before yanking it down and around his neck.

Yes, he was actually.

Steaming the milk he had already prepared, he watched the guy out of the corner of his eye as he had internally screamed out in agony at him to PLEASE be single and notice him. The man had worn wore a red leather jacket that looked worse for wear but it suited him and had paired it with tight black jeans. His hair style was kind of outdated however, but it really didn't matter at all to Lance when he was already sporting such a killer profile. And oh wow, did he actually start to like his stupid black hair now.

As Lance poured had the milk into the cup he had prepared, he tried his best not to make eye contact with him until he realized that the guy was actually speaking to him over the hand off plane.

Oh god, he was fucking gorgeous.

He had creamy pale skin and dark violet eyes that Lance had almost mistaken for brown. He had thick dark eyelashes that made him look as if he had thrown a little bit of eyeliner but he was pretty sure it was all just natural. The guy's bangs framed his face very well; he had that whole alternative type of vibe radiating off him.

He watched as one of the man's eyebrows rise in question as Lance continued to watch his lips move.

Oh fuck, he was talking to Lance.

“Could I get the lactose free from you?”

Lance's eyes widened at his question. What did he just ask him? Did he hear himself right?

“I'm sorry, what did you say? This machine, ha, its so loud.” Lance laughed nervously, trying his best to throw on his customer service smile as the guy repeated what he had said but all Lance could hear was what he previously had heard.

“One more time for me?” 

He could tell the guy was getting a little bit annoyed by him as he gave Lance an unfriendly quirk of his lips. “Lactose free milk.”

“Oh, I'm so sorry. Here you go.” 

Lance quickly pulled it out from the mini fridge that was right underneath the bar before excusing himself into the back room. He could hear Pidge's snickers as he flung himself through the swinging doors.

Nyma was leaning up against the dish pit, her phone out as her thumbs skidded across the touch screen in quick succession. She glanced up and grinned mischievously, Lance could already feel his ego taking a hit before she even opened her mouth.

“Whats wrong? You need your hearing checked?”

He groaned as he leaned his head to the side, not caring that he was resting on a box of venti sized cups. “My soul is leaving my mortal body.”

Nyma laughed as she slid her phone away into her apron's front pocket. “Did you even hear him say anything at all? Or were you too busy imaging him something else.” Her thin eyebrows wiggled and she wagged her tongue out at him.

Lance dragged his hand down his face as he stared up at the ceiling, recounting what had just happened.

“All I heard him say was, ' Could I please fuck you.”

Which was why, after finally memorizing this guy's order and not speaking to him since that time, Lance was ready.

He was back on bar, Allura their manager was there all morning which meant no one went near her. But the minute she was sent on her break; Lance took over. As he made a couple of other customers drinks, he waited patiently for the red leather jacket to come strolling in and order his drink that he had recently started to get. It was a short black coffee with a double shot of espresso and a little bit of lactose free foam on top as well as it being doubled cupped. Lance had set aside two shorts cups already with his name, number and a winky face already scrawled onto it in blue sharpie. He had also blanked out the warnings that were written in small print at the bottom of the cup that now spelled out 'Careful, you're extremely hot.'

An hour went by before Lance had spotted the shock of red approaching the store through the front facing bay windows. His heart started to hammer in his chest as he took a deep breath; he could do this.

He saw Pidge give him a secret thumbs up behind cash before greeting Mr. Red leather jacket and asking him how his week was. 

Lance had already started foaming up the milk before the man could even get two words of his order out to Pidge. Having already retrieved the right amount of coffee that he needed before hand, he queued up two espresso shots on his machine before glancing up to find him standing at the hand off plane on his phone.

“How's your Sunday so far?” He tried his best to cover up whatever nerves were trying to bubble over into his voice as he poured the shots into the short cup of coffee.

The guy glanced up from his phone and smiled absently, shrugging his shoulders. “Nothing much, just a bit of errands to do.”

Lance smiled as he scooped a bit of the milk out from the metal pitcher before placing it on top of the coffee. “Sounds like you'll be busy all day.”  
The guy gave him another absent smile before nodding his head in thanks as Lance slid his drink towards him.

“Have a good afternoon, alright?”

 

~*~

 

“Do you think trying and crying rhyme because of me?”

Hunk rolled his eyes as he counted out the pastries that were laid out onto the cart in front of him. Lance had just gotten off work after the four hours of feeling nothing but nerves eat away at his being. He consistently ran off the floor to check on his phone but no answer came.

Oh god, what if this guy had a girlfriend? Fuck, why didn't he even ask for his name.

“I have to quit now. Or transfer to a different location. Do you think if I drown myself in white mocha, I'd die a slow death or a quick one?” 

Lance couldn't help but talk a mile a minute before he heard the ping of his phone sound off.

Hunk glanced up at him as his thick dark brows furrowed, his whole face not impressed as he watched Lance struggle to pull his phone out from his jeans' back pocket.

Xxx-xxx-3478: Hey Lance, its Keith. Um, short coffee with two espressos? I just wanted to know if you'd be working next Sunday and if you'd like a ride there, ugh, yeah. Get back to me at this number.

**Author's Note:**

> Its 8 am on a Tuesday and I haven't gone to bed yet because I drank five cups of coffee finishing up another fic but also because I need a second job so my resume needed to be updated.
> 
> This is unedited so if you see any mistakes, please go ahead and tell me. I appreciate it very much.
> 
> Also, I work as a barista at a drive thru coffee shop LOL  
> The lactose free thing is ACTUALLY what happened to me but Lance is braver than I am... Plus the first time I actually had a conversation with the attractive guy, he told me he had a pretty bad weekend on the account of someone close to him passing away so I had no idea what to do so OH WELL I TRIED MY BEST.
> 
> If you're reading this, Savage or Pong Pong, stop. Be free. Don't judge me, I've fallen into a trap.
> 
> Also shout out to Selfie Bee because they are my favourite comics and I quote them all the time at work :3


End file.
